Taylor Swift may be the 2014 version of James Brown's famous moniker. That's right, the 24-year-old could be the Hardest Working Woman In Show Business. Music industry forecasters are now declaring that the newly-minted pop star may surpass earlier predictions for a one-week sales total for her "1989" album. They're forecasting that Swift may rack up a mind-blowing 1.3 million in sales in the album's ongoing debut week.
Billboard's Keith Caulfield states, "Taylor Swift's unstoppable new album, '1989,' may sell 1.25 million copies in its first week, so suggest industry forecasters. The album could even approach 1.3 million, if the weekend is especially kind to the release."
The forecasted sales figures for the album have gone up and up, rising at a steady and rapid rate. The sales forecasting started out at 800,000-900,000 a week ago. A couple of days later, it had risen to over 900,000. The total kept moving up - like the speedometer of a NASCAR race car zipping around the track. The forecast figure blew past 1 million out on the straight away, hit 1.2 million going into the turn and it is now up to 1.25 million - as Swift heads toward the checkered flag.
Citing Swift's media promotions and "marketing rampage" in support of "1989," Roger Friedman of Showbiz411 observed, "The result is that she will likely have sold 1.3 million copies of her '1989' album when the official count begins on Monday."
The official SoundScan count does begin on Monday Nov. 3 and wraps up on Wednesday Nov. 5, when the actual first week sales for "1989" will be tallied.
The purely pop album - powered by its debut single "Shake It Off" - could score the largest sales week for any album in 12 years. In 2002, Eminem's 'The Eminem Show' sold 1.322 million in its first full week on sale.
Swift is no stranger to selling more than a million albums in week. Her last album, "Red," had sales of 1.208 million its first week out in 2012. And "Red" was the last album by any artist to sell a million copies in a week.
The singer/songwriter has been everywhere promoting "1989" through commercial tie-ins with Diet Coke, I Heart Music Radio and more. She's been on ABC's "Good Morning America," "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," NBC's "The Voice" and CBS' "The Late Show With David Letterman."
And she's covered her new home - New York City - like the proverbial blanket. As musical proof that she is enamored with her adopted city, the Pennsylvania native even kicks off "1989" with the anthem "Welcome to New York."
The country-gone-pop star is featured in a new collection of videos with NYCGo created to put a positive spotlight on the Big Apple. In one of the videos, she enlightens non-New Yorkers to essential vocabulary words, such as "stoop" and "bodega."
Swift is backing up her feelings for her new home city by giving back. She's donating all the proceeds from "Welcome to New York" to the city's public schools.
No one can fault Swift for doing all she can to promote"1989" - the end result of her talent and hard work. And with the debut-week SoundScan total for the album just days away, the songstress is the walking, talking, singing embodiment of Donna Summer classic "She Works Hard For The Money."
For more on the stylish songstress, check out my previous HNGN story: Taylor Swift's '1989' On Track To Sell A Million Copies In Its First Week And Make Music History
